


Dainty

by thief_nim



Series: coed!EXO [2]
Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Friendship, Gen, Gender Related, Gender Roles, Genderbending, Hurt/Comfort, Male-Female Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-04
Updated: 2016-07-04
Packaged: 2018-07-20 00:23:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7383502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thief_nim/pseuds/thief_nim
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Baekhyun was used to all of the comments, but that didn’t mean he had to like them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dainty

**Author's Note:**

> Not all of these are supposed to be sad, I swear. *sweats* Misgendering pisses me off, and I see so many people do it to Baekhyun. I think it would be even worse if EXO was coed because people would group him with female idols even more than they already do, so it was one of the first things I knew I was going to write about. I'm sorry it took so long to post TTATT

**[enter-talk] Byun Baekhyun is too pretty, God made a mistake kekekeke**

_He’s seriously too pretty…_

_Baekhyun doesn’t even have an Adam’s apple, his neck is as smooth as a girl’s_

_Baekhyunnie has the most male fans out of the male members keke he’s so pretty even his fans call him eonnie or nuna sometimes_

_He’d be the ultimate girl crush, God really was too cruel by not going all the way to make him a girl, both to him and us…_

_His makeup is heavier than most girl group members but it suits him because he’s small and cute  
+Legendary eyeliner… SM needs to release makeup tutorials using him as a model_

_EXO’s first concert almost had the male members crossdressing, I wish it had happened TT-TT_

_Didn’t he say he was basically the daughter in his family? Even he knows it keke_

_Pretty face, pretty hands, pretty lines, seriously so pretty…  
+He seriously should have been born a girl_

_He has a face that doesn’t suit strong concepts, so he wears a lot of makeup to make himself sexy, but it also makes him as pretty as another girl or even prettier_

_I showed this picture to my foreign friend, and even she thought he was a girl_  

 

 

 

* * *

**pretty**  
_adj. pleasing to the eye; attractive in a delicate way  
synonym: dainty_

* * *

 

 

Baekhyun didn’t like it when people said he was pretty.

The first time he had heard it was at their debut showcase, and he had brushed it off with a laugh. He’d always heard that he was cute growing up, so being called pretty wasn’t really a stretch if he was being honest. His eye makeup was heavy, heavier than the makeup the girls were wearing, so he just chalked it up to that and moved on with his life. Over the course of their promotions, thick eyeliner had become associated with him, and with that association came comments about how much it suited him and how pretty he was. Over time, he had gotten used to hearing the comments, but they didn’t always sit well with him.

When EXO had first guested on Weekly Idol, Baekhyun had realized why.

“EXO is a group with six male members and six female members, but why am I seeing seven?” one of the MCs had said when all twelve members had finished their greeting.

“Seven guys?” the other had asked.

“No, seven girls,” he had laughed in reply. “One of these guys really is too pretty, and their clothes are so baggy we don’t know what they’re hiding!” Everyone on set laughed because it was all they could do, but the members looked amongst themselves awkwardly, and whether or not it was a joke, Baekhyun prayed it was Lu Han the MCs were referring to.

The members were then sorted into K and M based on the MCs’ guesses, and as each member revealed which subunit they were actually in, the MCs were penalized with a toy hammer. When it came to Baekhyun, he tried to play up the suspense, but he revealed his name with an easy smile, “Hello, I’m EXO-K’s Baekhyun.”

“… _Baekhyun?_ You’re a guy?” the MC gave him a surprised look.

Baekhyun reflected the surprised expression automatically, almost dropping the hammer as he tried not to stutter out his reply, “… Yes?” This had to be a damn joke, it _had_ to be. He wasn’t the most masculine person out there, he was well aware, but that didn’t mean people thought he was a _girl_.

“Has anyone every told you that you looked like a girl?” the MC asked him.

With an awkward laugh, he shook his head, “Well, not to my face…” Baekhyun felt his ears begin to heat up, and he was suddenly glad that he had a bandanna tied around his neck, hiding his lack of an Adam’s apple from sight.

Beside him, Kyungsoon chose her words with a purpose, “It’s because you _don’t_ look like a girl.”

“…Can Oppa hit him for thinking he was a girl?” Seyun raised her hand hesitantly, looking to the other MC, unsure with how she was supposed to respond to the situation.

Minseon snorted softly in agreement before looking at the offending MC, “That’s a bigger mistake to make than putting him in the wrong subunit, don’t you think?”

Another round of laughter travelled through the set, and Baekhyun hit the MC with the toy hammer. Hoping that something similar would never happen ever again, he put the experience behind himself, and they moved on with the recording.

“And now our Pretty Baekhyunnie~” the MC said as he revealed main vocal’s profile. “You’re certified to teach hapkido?” At Baekhyun’s nod, he looked skeptical, “I want to see it. We should test the strength of your kicks.”

Baekhyun stood, walking around the semi-circle as he spoke “I learned hapkido for a few years, to a difficult level,” when he caught the MCs’ doubtful faces, he turned to face the camera, unwilling to be deterred by the lack of faith, “I’ll show you a Brazilian kick. The goal is to hit your opponent in the neck,” he turned, snapping his leg back and hitting an imaginary target. He gave a proud smile, “Like that.”

The rest of the members gave the appropriate reaction, cheering on their fellow group member, but one of the MCs raised a question, “Isn’t that neck a bit too low?”

Baekhyun gave a sheepish laugh in reply, stifling any annoyance brewing, “My pants are really tight…”

“Kick me instead,” the MC suggested. “Aim for my butt.”

“… Are you sure about that?” Baekhyun raised a brow. That kick was supposed to _incapacitate_ someone. Of course, he wouldn’t do it full strength, but he couldn’t be sure how much he would hurt the MC. If something went wrong, Baekhyun wasn’t looking forward to being caught in a scandal so early in his career.

“Kick me as hard as you can,” the MC even bent over to give the singer a clear target. “I’m sure it won’t hurt that much.”

“Well, if you’re sure…” Baekhyun trailed off before delivering a sharp kick with a little more force than he needed to. He felt an odd satisfaction when the MC let out a shout, laughing as Yixing went to “heal” him and trying not to look as smug as he felt. The smug feelings didn’t last though.

“I didn’t expect such a pretty face to cause so much pain,” the MCs laughed together, “Our Pretty Baekhyunnie is doing really well on this broadcast.”

He nodded with a pleasant smile, giving a short laugh and wishing he had kicked the man even harder. 

 

 

☆

 

Baekhyun didn’t consider himself to be a person full of regrets.

Ever since he was young, Baekhyun had always been someone who acted according to his emotions and said whatever was on his mind, regardless of what it was. Good or bad, he tried not to let the result of whatever he said or did get to him. After all, he was a celebrity, a public figure. No matter how careful he was, there would always be critical eyes watching, some even waiting to the moment he would slip up just so they could pounce on him. The singer knew he wasn’t perfect, and there were many times where he deserved to be scolded for something. Baekhyun was human, and that meant that there would be times in which he would stumble and fall, but he would always get back up and try to move forward with a bright personality. No matter what, he would try.

Sometimes though, Baekhyun would fail, and he would have regrets.

Time and time again, the singer would think back to the day he had carelessly said he was raised as the daughter of his family during his radio show with Jonghae. It had been a harmless joke about how he was closer to his mom than he was to his dad, but fans and antis had taken the statement and run with it. Anything from the way he walked to the way he laughed made people think he was some weak princess waiting for a knight in shining armor. He couldn’t help the way he was, but sometimes he wished that he could.

“… Why aren’t you practicing?” He turned to see Kyungsoon giving him a judgmental brow raise from the door to the practice room. When they met eyes, the other vocalist frowned, “What’s wrong?” She looked him up and down before her eyes landed on the tablet sitting next to him. With a sigh, she walked over to the piano bench and sat down next to the other, giving him a pointed look, “What stupid article were you reading this time?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Bakehyun shrugged. “I was just checking where we are on Melon.” His fingers inched for the tablet, but one look from Kyungsoon stilled them, and he watched warily as she unlocked the tablet and read what was on the screen.

“’Byun Baekhyun is too pretty, God made a mistake,’” she read aloud. She scrolled through the article, taking in every piece of it. “Here we have a lot of pictures of your face on sunbaes’ bodies, female of course, pictures of you in stage makeup, and a list of reasons why you would be better off as a girl.” With a sigh, she turned off the screen and looked at the other, “Why were you reading this?”

“In my defense, I just wanted to see what people thought of my league stream,” Baekhyun began, his fingers tracing over the keys before him. With a sigh, he looked a Kyungsoon. “It was one of the first articles that came up when I was searching myself, that and some article wondering why I wear so much makeup even though I’m a guy.” He gave her a pointed look, “I wear more than you do, Kyungsoon.”

She made a face at him, “I’m not the best example, and you know that.” After unlocking the tablet, she typed a search query into Naver. “Your makeup suits you though. None of the other guys can pull it off.”

“Because I have a girly face,” Baekhyun pointed out.

“Because you have _your_ face,” Kyungsoon corrected swiftly. “You don’t look like a girl, you never have.”

“I don’t have an Adam’s apple.”

“Your balls still dropped when you hit puberty,” Kyungsoon replied with a shrug. “As long as you’re healthy, I don’t see why that’s a problem, Baekhyun.” She held up the tablet, “Do you hate this person?”

“Of course not,” Baekhyun said, making a face. She was holding up a [picture](http://i.imgur.com/Edy4FFV.jpg) of him from a Gayo Daejun performance during Growl era. He remembered how surprised people were that he had ‘abandoned’ his thick makeup style for those promotions, but the singer had embraced the change with open arms. As a result, he got less comments of how he was pretty, but he got more comments about how he looked like he needed to be protected. Baekhyun knew he had an innocent-looking face, but so did Chanyeol, yet the other didn't need to be protected because he was taller. Apparently, height had a correlation to how well you could take care of yourself. He just couldn’t win with netizens. He gave Kyungsoon a pointed look, “That’s me. I don’t hate myself.”

“This is also you,” Kyungsoon changed the picture. “Do you hate _him_?”

He didn’t reply immediately, taking in the [picture](http://i.imgur.com/bfd0IQA.jpg) instead. It was from the first day of EXO’luXion concert in Seoul. He’d worn more makeup before if he was being honest, but Baekhyun knew that wasn’t why Kyungsoon had chosen the picture. It was one from the comments, the one where the netizen’s foreign friend had thought he was a girl. A lot of pictures from the coffee elf segment of the concert had gotten the same reaction. The way his hair had been styled combined with the hat was supposed to be proof that he looked like a girl even if he wasn’t wearing heavy makeup. His Adam’s apple-less neck was just another nail in the coffin. Despite this, Baekhyun’s reply was the same as before. “I don’t hate him either.”

"Why not?” Kyungsoon turned off the screen, looking Baekhyun straight in the eyes.

“Because… there’s nothing wrong with him,” Baekhyun shook his head, “and there’s nothing wrong with me.”

Kyungsoon nodded, “Exactly. There’s nothing wrong you, there’s _never_ been anything wrong with you, Baekhyun. You can wear as much makeup as you want to or don’t want to. It doesn’t make you any more or less of a man.” She rolled her eyes, “Masculinity is so fragile, but you’re better than that. Other people might not be, and they’re going to be petty, but that means the problem is with _them_ , not with you.” She met his eyes, giving him a genuine look, “I hope you can learn to realize that.”

“… I’m starting to,” Baekhyun gave a slow nod, “Thanks, I appreciate that, what you said.” She gave a quiet shrug in reply, but he continued, “Really, thank you, Kyungsoon.”

“You would say the same thing to me if I needed to hear it,” she deflected.

He gave her a mischievous smile, “Are you sure about that?” When she shoved him in reply, he laughed freely, and she smiled with him, her lips forming the heart that all her fans loved. The two fell into a comfortable silence before Baekhyun looked at his companion. “Since you’re here, we might as well practice for the concert,” Baekhyun said, fingers already going through the scales as a warmup. “I’ll sing Junmae-noona’s parts and you sing Jonghae’s.”

“Might as well,” Kyungsoon made herself comfortable on the bench, “If we overlap, we can just do our original parts.”

"Sounds like a plan,” Baekhyun nodded his agreement while his hands found their place on the piano. He gave Kyungsoon a glance, “Ready?” At her nod, he smiled and began to play.

 

 

 

 

* * *

_☆Like the sunlight, stronger, me and you☆_

* * *

 


End file.
